from Hacker News

Browsix – A Unix-Like Operating System for the Browser

by tremguy on 5/14/16, 6:56 AM with 26 comments

  • by amelius on 5/18/16, 10:14 AM

    Cool, but why not allow us to compile C code, and run everything in ASM.js? That would make it more Unix-like in my opinion.

    Also it would save you the trouble of writing a shell from scratch :)

  • by MrQuincle on 5/14/16, 8:19 AM

    Wow, looks like a big deal. I've been reading through https://github.com/plasma-umass/browsix/blob/master/doc/repo... which is a really nice article, but I'd recommend you to tell a bit more on what this level of indirection brings.

    You mention Bluetooth for example in the beginning which is an example of hardware that is yet not supported from the browser.

    Applications beyond what can currently be done in a UNIX shell would be good. You already have thought long about it. I feel you can tell us much more about possibilities!!!

  • by ianai on 5/18/16, 9:40 AM

    Conceptually, I'm digging it. But what would the use cases look like? (not as a skeptic - as a 'I wonder what this opens up')

  • by jrcii on 5/18/16, 1:48 PM

    A different animal (no pun intended) but this project also provides the ability to render a web-based shell if that's your primary use for this http://pigshell.com/v/0.6.4/

    There's also this https://github.com/shellinabox/shellinabox and this http://www.web-console.org/

  • by jrapdx3 on 5/18/16, 9:36 AM

    Looks interesting but did anyone get the demo to work?

    Click on the "live demo" link, quite a long delay (few minutes), finally terminal-like display appears with "$" prompt.

    However entering usual unix commands, ls, cd, etc., gives error: "Error while executing /usr/bin/ls: TypeError: get length method called on incompatible Object", or "/usr/bin/cd: command not found".

    Running with FF Nightly. Don't know if it's me, FF, or the app.

    What am I missing?

  • by tempodox on 5/18/16, 1:47 PM

    It was only a question of time until someone would come up with this. The next logical step is to rewrite the browser in JS, so it can run inside the browser.

  • by digi_owl on 5/18/16, 11:49 AM

    Dunno if it is something to do with Firefox, but backspacing past $ produce some interesting error output.

    Seems to only happen right after a command though, hitting return a few times gets rid of it.